Jefferson, Madison and Jesus on the National Day of Prayer

The National Day of Prayer, organized and overseen by evangelical Christians since 1952, offers opportunity for reflecting on the appropriate relationship between “church and state.” In April, a U.S. district judge in Wisconsin declared the event unconstitutional, provoking predictable outrage in some circles and a Justice Department promise to appeal the decision. Franklin Graham’s disinvitation to a prayer service at the Pentagon, because of his negative comments about Islam, stoked the fires higher.

President Obama straddled the line, drawing criticism for issuing a proclamation calling on Americans to “pray, or otherwise give thanks” on the day (May 6), for not holding a prayer service in the White House, and, by some constitutional scholars, for not standing clear of the matter entirely.

In fact, presidents have been inconsistent on such matters. Every president since Harry Truman has joined in support of the National Day of Prayer, but this was not always the case. In his historic 1802 letter to the Danbury, Connecticut, Baptists, President Thomas Jefferson noted that the Constitution had established “a wall of separation between Church & State.” So concerned was he to strike just the right tone in the letter, Jefferson asked Attorney General Levi Lincoln to review it. In his note to Lincoln, he observed that he liked to use such letters as a means “of sowing useful truths and principles among the people, which might germinate and become rooted among their political tenets.” More specifically, he said that the Danbury letter “furnishes an occasion, too, which I have long wished to find, of saying why I do not proclaim fastings and thanksgivings, as my predecessors did.” In the original draft of the letter, Jefferson explained his reasoning: “Congress thus inhibited from acts respecting religion, and the executive authorized only to execute their acts, I have refrained from prescribing even occasional performances of devotion.”

Though hardly a pious man, Jefferson was not opposed to prayer, but believed they were not the business of the state. In 1808 he wrote, “Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the time for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and right can never be safer than in their hands, where the Constitution has deposited it.”

James Madison, whose being known as “The Father of the Constitution” lends some weight to his opinion as to what his offspring intended, hewed an even straighter line. On several occasions, he staunchly opposed aid to all “religious societies,” asserting that it would erase “the essential distinction between civil and religious function.” After initially condoning tax support of congressional chaplains, he later rejected the practice as “a palpable violation of … constitutional principles.” Madison believed military chaplains served a worthwhile purpose, but thought they should be supported by their respective denominations rather than from the public coffers. As for prayer, during the War of 1812, he gave in to pressure to proclaim a National Day of Prayer and fasting for those “so disposed” to ask for God’s assistance in the war. Later, however, he wrote a document [“Detached Memoranda“] listing five reasons why he had been wrong to do so, since such acts “seem to imply and certainly nourish the erroneous idea of a national religion.” In 1832, Andrew Jackson refused to proclaim a fast day during a cholera epidemic because he thought it unconstitutional.

Those who think it unwise for the state to sanction a National Day of Prayer can find support that antedates the Constitution. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And in praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows who you need before you ask him.” (Matthew 6:5-8)

Perhaps Jesus didn’t really say that, or perhaps he was mistaken, or perhaps he failed to appreciate the reward of being seen of men.